2014 NAIA Baseball Players of the Week – No. 5

Ogando and Pruitt earn NAIA baseball weekly honors

April 15, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Emilio Ogando of St. Thomas (Fla.) has been named the NAIA Baseball National Pitcher of the Week and Kirk Pruitt of Park (Mo.) has been selected as the NAIA Player of the Week, the national office announced Tuesday. Ogando and Pruitt were chosen based on their performances from April 7 – 13 and were selected out of a pool of conference, independent and unaffiliated group winners.

Ogando, a native of Valrico, Fla., threw a complete-game shutout in the Bobcat’s 8-0 win over then-No. 13 Embry-Riddle (Fla.) on April 12. The junior left-hander allowed only two hits and no walks, while striking out eight against the Eagles. Ogando retired the last 18 batters he faced in the series-clinching win.

On the season, Ogando is 7-1 with a 2.01 earned run average. He enters the week as the NAIA leader in strikeouts with 96, including a season-high 15 against Northwood (Fla.) on Feb. 8.

Pruitt, a native of St. Louis, Mo., scored eight runs, stole seven bases and had seven RBIs in the Pirates three-game sweep over American Midwest Conference (AMC) rival Harris-Stowe State (Mo.) April 11 – 12. In the middle game of the series, the senior outfielder/second baseman went 5-for-5 with five RBIs and three runs scored. Two of Pruitt’s five hits in the contest were triples. He also swiped four bases. For the week, Pruitt went 11-for-12 (.917) with a double and two triples.

Pruitt owns a .318 batting average (34-for-107) in 31 games. He is the team leader in runs scored (34), walks (23) and stolen bases (26). Pruitt is the second Park player to earn the award this season, joining Dylan Mayes who claimed the honor on March 18.